June 22, 2005
New study, old recommendations
Gambling Problems Risk Further Neglect
The rising tide of gambling addiction is a public health and safety issue across this country. No one knows exactly how many compulsive gamblers end up taking their own lives in Canada. The Canada Safety Council believes the number is likely over 200 a year.
For every suicide, five gamblers with self-inflicted injuries could end up in hospital. Gambling addiction is also linked to a range of other serious personal and social harms such as bankruptcy, family breakup, domestic abuse, assault, fraud, theft and even homelessness. Some of the costs could be quantified, including medical care, policing, courts, prisons, social assistance and business losses. However, no simple dollar figure can measure the devastation to the lives of those affected by pathological gambling.
A Canada West Foundation study on gambling in Canada released on June 21 is alarming but not surprising. The study found that governments took in over $12.7 billion from gambling last year. It pointed to a big difference between how much Canadians report they are spending on gambling and what the actual figures show. Reported annual household spending was $272, yet the average spending level was four times higher, at $1,080. The Canada Safety Council suggests that very high losses by pathological gamblers may account for much of this discrepancy.
As the regulators of their own extremely lucrative gambling operations, these governments find themselves in a glaring conflict of interest. Provincial and territorial governments have become more and more reliant on revenues from their gambling operations. They advertise their casinos, lotteries and instant wins as a way to have fun and get rich quick.
Those same governments spent only $75 million (1.2 percent of net profits) on programs that deal with gambling addiction. They contributed widely varying amounts of their proceeds to charities, nonprofits and individuals. Ontario grants represented a meager five percent of net profits while Alberta gave closer to 15 percent.
The study reiterates eight policy recommendations from its earlier three-year independent study of gambling in Canada that ended in 2001. The recommendations include adopting a public health approach to gambling, stopping expansion pending more research and data on impacts of gambling, involving the public in policy-making, working with First Nations — and a national review of gambling activity in Canada.
These recommendations should have been taken seriously over four years ago. To let them gather dust for another (how many?) years would be folly. Governments that have allowed themselves to become dependant on gambling income must now risk some of their profits on public health and safety.
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